U.S. Education Dept. locks out teachers unions

AFT President Randi Weingarten and Lily Eskelsen García, the president of the National Education Association, were met with locked doors at the U.S. Education Department on Feb. 8 when they attempted to deliver more than 80,000 report cards grading Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on her first year in office.

The report cards, filled out by teachers and paraprofessionals, scored DeVos on issues ranging from her duty to protect students’ civil rights to her responsibility to put federal resources behind state and local efforts to serve low-income students and students of color. On these and other issues, the educators said DeVos came up short.

“Her actions during her first year in office have betrayed and undermined the fundamental mission public schools have to provide opportunity for every student who walks through the door,” said Eskelsen García.